Song Singh's "Bookie Song": the new video sensation

"BETTING ON CRICKET IS ILLEGAL. SINGING A SONG ABOUT IT, ISN'T."

By the time you will be reading this article the the name Song Singh may have gone viral on social media. Just in case you have not heard about him, Song Singh is an avatar created by lyricist-director Anantha Narayan, and voiced over by Aswin Rao.

In an interview with CricketCountry Anantha mentioned that there were two main reasons for creating Song Singh. The first (and more obvious one) is to “showcase social satire as and when things happen”. It’s therefore not a coincidence that it is coming out on the day when the hearing for Mudgal Committee begins.

Indeed, the video starts with the disclaimer that catches your attention inside the first five seconds: “BETTING ON CRICKET IS ILLEGAL. SINGING A SONG ABOUT IT, ISN’T.”

“Instead attacking spot-fixing as a concept we decided to target the bookies,” Anantha revealed. “As a cricketer you have to slog, but as a bookie you don’t have to do anything. That’s the easiest way to make a life.”

Anantha mentioned Vindoo Dara Singh, who is still in no apparent danger despite the allegations against. “Nothing historic came out of it. All we had was (Sunil) Gavaskar was appointed.” Under such circumstances Anantha and Aswin Rao, in collaboration with Lucifer Labs Records (producer), Donan Murray (composer), and Rajesh Bajaj (director of photography and editor) decided to do what creativity commanded them to do: to take up the pen, the microphone, and the camera.

The other, less apparent reason was the dearth of cricket songs (and more generally, sport songs) in India. One can hope Song Singh turns out to be a path-breaker in the genre.

First Published on April 15, 2014 11:43 PM ISTLast updated on July 23, 2014 7:20 PM IST